1000 Years of Musical Listening Final Exam: Vocab Words

Exposition

Opening section, In a fugue, the first section in which the voices enter in trun with the subject. In sonata-allegro form, the first section in which the mahor tehmatic material is stated. Also statement.

Strophic

Song structure in which the same music is repeated with every stanza (strophe) of the poem.

Program Music

Instrumental music endowed with literary or pictorial associations, especially popular in the nineteenth century.

Absolute Music

Music that has no literary, dramatic, or pictorial program or associations. Also called pure music.

Rondo

Musical form in which the first section recurs several times, usually in the tonic. In the classical multimovement cycle, it often appears as the last movement in various forms, such as A-B-A-B-A, A-B-A-C-A, and A-B-A-C-A-B-A.

Chamber Music

Ensemble music for up to about ten players, with one player to a part.

String Quartet

Chamber music ensemble consisting of two violins, viola, and cello. Also, a multimovement composition for this ensemble.

Sonata-Allegro form

The opening movement of the multimovement cycle, consisting of themes that are stated in the first section (exposition), developed in the second section (development), and restated in the third section (recapitulation). Also sonata form.

Development

Structural reshaping of thematic material. The second section of sonata-allegro form; it moves through a series of foreign keys while themes from the exposition are developed.

recapitulation

Third section of sonata-allegro form, in which the thematic material of the exposition is restated, generally in the tonic.

Coda

The last part of a piece, usually added to a standard form to bring it to a close.

minuet and trio

An A-B-A form (A = minuet; B= trio) in a moderate triple meter, often the third movement of the Classical multimovement cycle.

Scherzo

Composition in A-B-A form, usually in triple meter; replaced the minuet and trio in the nineteenth century.

Cyclical form

Structure in which musical material, such as a theme, presented in one movement returns in a later movement.

Lied (plural: Leider)

German for “song”; most commonly associated with the art song of the ninteenth century, usually accompanied by piano.

Song Cycles

Group of songs that are unified musically through their texts.

Through-composed

Song structure that is composed form beginning to end, without repetitions of larger sections.

idée fixe (fixed idea)

Term coined by Berlioz for a recurring musical idea that links different movements of work.

total artwork

Refers to a concept in which multiple art forms—such as music, drama, visual art, dance, and architecture—are unified into a single, cohesive artistic experience.

Leitmotifs

“Leading Motive",” or basic recurring theme, representing a person, object, or idea: widely used in Wagner’s music dramas.

Impressionism

A French movement developed by visual artists who favored vague, hazy images intended to capture an “impression” of the subject in different lights. It is characterized by exotic scales, unresolved dissonances, parallel chords, rich orchestral tone color, and free rhythm.

Expressionism

A style of visual art and literature in Germany and Austria in the early twentieth century. The term is sometimes also applied to music, especially composers of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern).

Sprechstimme (Speech-like melody)

A vocal style in which the melody is spoken at approximate pitches rather than sung on exact pitches; developed by Schoenberg.

Second Viennese school

Early twentieth-century group of composers, including Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils Anton Webern and Alban Berg, who developed and wrote in the style known as twelve-tone music.

Harlem Renaissance

An early twentieth-century cultural and artistic movement created in NY’s Harlem neighborhood and focused on the rebirth of African American arts.

Neo-Classical

A twentieth-century style that combined elements of Classical and Baroque music with modernist trends.